Insider: Here’s how to treat menstrual migraine
UC headache expert discusses migraine triggers in women
Menstrual migraine isn’t your average headache or migraine. In a 2015 study, women with menstrual migraines reported prolonged migraines and more severe symptoms of nausea than women with non-menstrual migraines.
Insider spoke with Vincent Martin, MD, co-director of the UC Headache and Facial Pain Center and professor of internal medicine, about migraines and menstruation in women. Martin, also a UC Health physician, said that following menopause, “female hormones are falling and this can either drastically improve or sometimes worsen migraine attacks.”
"Birth control pills can worsen headaches in some girls or women because estrogen levels plummet during the placebo week of the birth control pills, which can trigger migraine attacks. One strategy to manage this is to use extended duration birth control pills that only give a placebo week every 3 months instead of monthly," Martin tells Insider.
Specific triggers, notably stress, can also bring on migraines, according to Martin.
Related Stories
More young adults are having strokes than three decades ago
September 23, 2026
A University of Cincinnati-led study published in the journal Neurology found that strokes among adults ages 20 to 54 nearly doubled over almost three decades, even as short-term survival after stroke improved.
UC part of $18 million initiative to expand behavioral health workforce in Ohio
September 23, 2026
The University of Cincinnati is participating in a new $18 million statewide scholarship program, as Cleveland.com recently reported, to address critical shortages of mental health and substance use treatment providers across Ohio.
Is Cincinnati building new homes fast enough?
September 22, 2026
Gary Painter, professor and academic director of the Real Estate Center at UC's Lindner College of Business, offers comments on affordability issues in Cincinnati.